The Analytic Hierarchy Process and Multicriterion Decision Making

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a new perspective on problems of choice by drawing on T.L. Saaty's work on analytic hierarchies and multicriterion decision making. Application is made to the problem of choosing the “best” route for a commuter. We construct a hierarchic structure as a model for evaluating a general service system, and obtain the best route using the priorities of the factors involved, which we derive by a method of ratio-scale estimation. We investigate this hierarchy for two purposes: (1) to determine its compatibility with the measures of effectiveness used by current transport system methods, and (2) to evaluate alternative transportation strategies, utilizing a specific example.

Key Words and Phrases:

• analytic hierarchy process
• multicriterion decision making
• measures of effectiveness
• transportation systems
• socio-economic factors